C
Chapter34
My PC has been trying and failing to update from 1709 to 1903 all year (prior to that it would fail with earlier updates due to lack of disk space, but I subsequently did some housekeeping and this wasn't the cause of the 1903 failures, although nothing would really indicate its cause). It was incessant in its attempts, popping up annoying dialog boxes on screen asking me if I want to update now and although it was usually inconvenient (and I know from bitter experience, futile), occasionally it caught me out when I was typing in another window and off it went an another doomed quest to install the latest update, leaving me without a PC for another 40 minutes.
However, quite inexplicably, on 27th December 2019, an update was inadvertantly triggered and it worked! Well, it took a round about route to "working", after this update attempt I was getting a BSOD (KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED) but with no details as to why, no driver name or anything to go on. After a few failed attempts to auto repair and a trip via Safe Mode the PC decided it would boot up just fine. Much to my amazement, it welcomed me to the latest version of Windows 10 and I was surprised to see it was now successfully running 1903! After so long and so many failures, it had finally done it. However, my celebrations were to be short-lived, for the next day, turning on the PC I got the BSOD again, and this time I couldn't shake it off. Every reboot/repair attempt resulted in another BSOD. Safe Mode and various other recovery options to no avail, I relunctantly selected to restore to the previous Windows Update and here I am again, back at 1709 and typing into this form at answers.microsoft.com, facing another potential long road of update attempts/failures.
I have removed a bunch of old software that I don't use anymore, checked my drivers are all up-to-date, run a hardware test and checked again that disk space if all fine - which it is. This should be a very healthy system. I am now waiting for the new storm to arrive, as I dare not invite the Update I know is coming any earlier for fear of losing more days of productivity.
I've long had the sneaky unsubstantiated suspicion that this may be related to my Sound Blaster Z-Series, although I'm on L13_1_01_06 which is the latest version. The reason I have this feeling is because in the past I had problems with the driver and I had to uninstall/reinstall it to get it working. Twice. Also, during my aforementioned BSOD boot loop problem, occasionally I'd start hearing static from the sound card, although all sound is working just fine again now back in 1709.
If I get another BSOD in the days or weeks ahead, are there any tricks I am missing for determining the driver that caused it? The boot log didn't help, and I noticed when it is reporting KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED that it seems to spend a short time recording some data. Is that data all going into the event log, seems unlikely to me? Or is there some other secret stash of information that might help me narrow down the cause?
Also I have heard that 1903 was full of bugs and sounds like I've found a fair few of them myself. 1909 is out ... is it worth trying to go straight from 1709 to 1909, or is that just going to make my life ever more complicated?
All I ask is for a PC that boots every day without issue. A tall order, perhaps ... heaven knows, I've been in the PC business since Windows 3.1. Perhaps I should bite the bullet, give Windows the final kick goodbye and install Linux instead. At least when Linux goes wrong I have more than half a chance of debugging it and figuring out where the problem lies and fixing it.
Continue reading...
However, quite inexplicably, on 27th December 2019, an update was inadvertantly triggered and it worked! Well, it took a round about route to "working", after this update attempt I was getting a BSOD (KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED) but with no details as to why, no driver name or anything to go on. After a few failed attempts to auto repair and a trip via Safe Mode the PC decided it would boot up just fine. Much to my amazement, it welcomed me to the latest version of Windows 10 and I was surprised to see it was now successfully running 1903! After so long and so many failures, it had finally done it. However, my celebrations were to be short-lived, for the next day, turning on the PC I got the BSOD again, and this time I couldn't shake it off. Every reboot/repair attempt resulted in another BSOD. Safe Mode and various other recovery options to no avail, I relunctantly selected to restore to the previous Windows Update and here I am again, back at 1709 and typing into this form at answers.microsoft.com, facing another potential long road of update attempts/failures.
I have removed a bunch of old software that I don't use anymore, checked my drivers are all up-to-date, run a hardware test and checked again that disk space if all fine - which it is. This should be a very healthy system. I am now waiting for the new storm to arrive, as I dare not invite the Update I know is coming any earlier for fear of losing more days of productivity.
I've long had the sneaky unsubstantiated suspicion that this may be related to my Sound Blaster Z-Series, although I'm on L13_1_01_06 which is the latest version. The reason I have this feeling is because in the past I had problems with the driver and I had to uninstall/reinstall it to get it working. Twice. Also, during my aforementioned BSOD boot loop problem, occasionally I'd start hearing static from the sound card, although all sound is working just fine again now back in 1709.
If I get another BSOD in the days or weeks ahead, are there any tricks I am missing for determining the driver that caused it? The boot log didn't help, and I noticed when it is reporting KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED that it seems to spend a short time recording some data. Is that data all going into the event log, seems unlikely to me? Or is there some other secret stash of information that might help me narrow down the cause?
Also I have heard that 1903 was full of bugs and sounds like I've found a fair few of them myself. 1909 is out ... is it worth trying to go straight from 1709 to 1909, or is that just going to make my life ever more complicated?
All I ask is for a PC that boots every day without issue. A tall order, perhaps ... heaven knows, I've been in the PC business since Windows 3.1. Perhaps I should bite the bullet, give Windows the final kick goodbye and install Linux instead. At least when Linux goes wrong I have more than half a chance of debugging it and figuring out where the problem lies and fixing it.
Continue reading...